


I Will Punish Your Friend For Your Failure

by icewhisper



Series: Holiday Cheer & Tears [15]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 14:57:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17003835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: “I don’t like it,” Mick told him when they were bent over the blueprints for the jewelry store.





	I Will Punish Your Friend For Your Failure

“I don’t like it,” Mick told him when they were bent over the blueprints for the jewelry store. “You’re sure your intel said it wasn’t Santini territory anymore?”

“The Santinis left Opal City years ago,” Len reminded him as he marked down another blind spot on the store’s security cameras. It was the third one he’d found, close to the door, but far enough away from the alarm system that they’d have to time it down to the second if they wanted to disarm it. “It passed onto some distant cousin that isn’t even involved in Family business and he sold it off last year.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling,” Mick said again, but he still reached out to point at a spot on the blueprints. “Over there. They’ve got two cameras covering the corner you’re looking at.”

“Good eye,” Len murmured as he traded out his pen for a red marker. He circled the area like a warning. “What’s getting you?”

“The Santinis are still dealing out in Opal,” Mick reminded him. “You said they used to use the store to launder shit out.”

“You think the new owners are mixed up with them?” Len asked, eyes raised towards Mick.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Just got a bad feeling.”

Len hummed, considering. “I can probably do it alone,” he offered. “Money’s going for Lisa’s skating lessons, anyway.”

“I just said I have a bad feeling about it and you want to go in alone,” Mick repeated flatly. “Are you still concussed?”

“No.” Maybe. He wasn’t sure if the headache was because he’d been staring at blueprints for three hours or if it was the same one he’d had since his dad had gotten mad and slammed his head into a wall. “I’ve done plenty of jobs alone-”

“No,” Mick interrupted. “You did plenty of jobs with your dad as shitty backup.”

“Same thing,” Len said with a wave of his hand and ignoring Mick’s muttered _it’s really not_. “You don’t got a good feeling, you back out before I plan this thing for two people.”

“What happened to _if you’re out, you’re out_?” Mick asked, voice nasally towards the end.

Len squinted at him. “Was that supposed to be me?”

“The only time I can do your accent is when I have a cold,” Mick deadpanned. “That’s as good as you’re gonna get.”

Len snorted.

“You still didn’t answer my question,” he reminded him. “Last time a guy tried to ditch out on a job, you shot him.”

“He was a dick.”

“That wasn’t why you shot him.”

Len shrugged. “You’re not him,” he mumbled and made another note on the blueprints. “If I ever feel like shooting you, you’ll know.”

“Like you’d have the guts,” Mick scoffed, but there was a fondness there. Len didn’t point it out. Pointing it out would mean acknowledging his own fondness for Mick and he was still trying to figure out what it meant. “I’m not letting you do this shit alone.”

“Then, let me plan. I can’t plan and talk to you at the same time,” he said and gave Mick a shooing motion.

Mick rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna get us lunch.”

“There’s mac and cheese in the cabinet.”

“ _Real_ food, Len. Have you ever _seen_ a vegetable?”

Another security camera got circled. “You know I don’t like apples.”

“You had better be fucking with me right now.”

 

 

They executed the job nine days later.

“Still got a bad feeling?” Len asked when they made it into the jewelry store without incident. He’d timed the seconds he needed to get from the door to the alarm and disengaged it before the cameras circled back to him. That had been the hardest part. The rest would just be clipping the secondary alarms on the cases before they opened them up. He and Mick could do that in their sleep.

“Yeah,” Mick said. “Ain’t gonna go away until we’re clear of this place.”

“You trusted my plan.” He’d let Mick go over it four times and listened to every concern Mick had had about it. Even Mick had admitted it looked flawless in the end.

“I trust you,” Mick corrected. “I don’t trust anything the Families ever touched.”

It was a fair enough concern. Len wasn’t exactly thrilled with the location himself, but he needed to make a name for himself outside of Central and build up some kind of reputation that didn’t include his father. Alexa Jewelers had been a damn gift with its irregular security guards. They only used them the night before and after the new shipments came in. Two days before, the store was black and silent. The take wouldn’t be as large, but a smaller take meant less attention while he tried to sell the goods. When he had better fences, he could stand to take bigger hauls, but until then, he was stuck with Gary down by the docks.

“Let’s just get this done,” he said as he pocketed a couple rings he didn’t feel like selling. He liked the pattern on them. “We’ve got twelve minutes, fourteen seconds.”

“Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven,” Mick muttered, but there was a little smirk on his face as he clipped the wires on their third case and opened it up.

Which is exactly when all hell broke loose.

The lights came on. People came in, shouting. A gun was pressed to the back of Len’s head. No one had gone near Mick, but the sight seemed to have frozen him in place. He didn’t even try to reach for his own weapon.

“And what the fuck do you think you’re doin’?” a voice asked, Irish accent thick and…

Shit. Fuck. No. The guy had sold Santini property off to the _O’Learys_?

His eyes found Mick’s, wide with panic, and he tried to keep his own expression clear. Let Mick know he’d get them out of here. He could. He’d figure something out.

“Just a bit of Christmas shopping,” Len said. “Figured I’d beat the Black Friday rush.”

“Christmas shopping,” the person with the gun scoffed.

“This not how you do it?” Len asked. “I’m Jewish. Kinda new to the Christmas thing. We usually just do chocolate.”

“You shoulda stuck with chocolate.”

“I’m seeing that,” Len allowed. “You wanna take your stuff back, it’s all in the bags. No harm, no foul. We didn’t break nothing. All you gotta do is reconnect some wires. No reason anyone’s gotta get hurt. We didn’t know it was Family territory.”

“See, I don’t think I’m agreein’ with you on everything,” the guy said right before one of his guys stepped around and brought the butt of his gun down on Mick’s temple.

“Hey!” Len shouted, poised to move until he heard the gun cock. He stilled. “He’s got nothing to do with this. The plan was mine.”

“Seems to me you should learn your lesson, then,” the guy said as he came around to Len’s front. The muzzle of the gun pressed against Len’s forehead and the guy knelt down in front of him, smirking. He couldn’t see Mick behind him. “You gonna lead, you gotta be ready for what happens when you miss a failsafe.”

Failsafe. How had he missed a fucking failsafe? He knew better than that. But… God. He didn’t remember cutting one. The alarm had gone quiet before it could send out a warning anywhere else and he’d been so relieved that he did it in the tiny window of time that he’d just…missed it.

There was the sound of fists hitting flesh. Boots kicking into ribs. Len thought he heard one crack, but it may have been his imagination.

“So hit _me_ ,” he snapped. He could take it. He’d been handling his dad for as long as he could remember and survived it fine. As long as no bullets came into the equation, he was sure it couldn’t be that bad.

“How are you gonna learn then?” the guy asked, mocking, and grabbed Len by his hair with his free hand. “Let’s leave Pauley to your friend. You and me are gonna have a little chat.” He pulled Len up to his feet and dragged him towards the back office. “Now, you’re gonna tell me what your name is…”

The door slammed shut behind them.

Len could still hear when Mick cried out.

The End


End file.
